PORT ALLEGANY — Call it a lesson learned for the Otto-Eldred girls.

After letting a potential win against Port Allegany slip away earlier this season due to a poor performance from the charity stripe, the Lady Terrors didn’t let it happen again.

O-E went 15-for-21 at the line, had six players register at least five points and avenged December’s defeat against Port A with a 59-51 North Tier League win on the road Thursday night.

With the win, Otto-Eldred (11-4, 9-2) pulls into a tie for second place with Port A (12-3, 9-2), and each sit two games back of Coudersport now.

“Absolutely call it a lesson learned,” O-E coach Shawn Gray said of the win. “Last time we played, we had 33 turnovers. Tonight, we still had too many — 21 — but that’s manageable. And we went 15-for-21 from the line and our freshmen (Katie Sheeler and Bri Heller) were 11-for-14.”

And it was that freshman duo that paced O-E throughout the night. Sheeler finished with a team-high 15 points, while Heller added 13 for the Lady Terrors. Kayley Heller was also in double figures, and registered a double-double with 10 points and 13 rebounds.

“I give it to our upperclassmen, they have total confidence in (the freshmen),” Gray said. “The upperclassmen know what (Sheeler and Bri Heller) can do, and they feed off of those two.”

The pair got off to a quick start. Sheeler scored six points in the first while Heller chipped in four as O-E took a narrow 14-13 lead after the period.

Port A, meanwhile, was paced by eight points from Cailey Barnett in the quarter, while fellow guard Bree Garzel added five. The two finished with 33 and 14 points, respectively.

Barnett continued her dominant start into the second quarter, scoring eight of Port A’s 11 points as the Lady Gators evened things up going into the intermission, 24-24.

But, with Port A missing two forwards in Shannon Curfman and Jade Evens, the Lady Terrors managed to out-size Port the rest of the night to close out the victory. O-E won the rebounding battle, 50-35, and often kept the Lady Gators to one-shot possessions while earning second and third chances on the other end.

The result was a combined 39 points from O-E’s forward group of Kayley and Bri Heller, Reilly Raught (9 points) and Morgan Dalton (7 points). The quartet scored 25 of those in the second half and 14 in the fourth quarter alone.

Port A, meanwhile picked up all but four of its points from the guard duo of Garzel and Barnett, and struggled to find much success in the paint. Port A took 17 more three-point shots than it did shots inside.

“(O-E) is not the team we want to be shorthanded inside against… They killed us on the boards,” Port A coach Jamie Evens said. “It was a great effort by our girls, but we were out-sized and there was only so much we could do about it.”

That mismatch was particularly felt in the fourth quarter, as Port A continued to put up threes to get back into the game. The Lady Gators managed to sink nine on the night, but missed 19 and finished 15-for-39 from the field overall, and nearly all of those misses ended Port’s possessions.

“We took some good shots in the second half that weren’t falling, and then we got down and started forcing some shots we typically wouldn’t take,” Evens said. “You have to find a way to come back, though.”

Port A had fallen behind by as many as seven late in the third quarter before a Barnett triple cut the O-E lead to 41-37 going into the fourth. The senior sank seven treys on the night to keep Port A in the mix.

But each time the Lady Gators were rallying for a comeback, O-E answered with a counterpunch of its own. The Lady Terrors opened the fourth on a quick 5-0 run that came on a layup from Kayley Heller and a trey from Dalton, giving Otto-Eldred a 46-37 lead and prompting a Port timeout.

And then after Port A cut the lead back to 47-44, O-E had an answer again. Kayley Heller converted an and-one to get O-E back up six, and then Port A was forced to foul the rest of the way — and this time, O-E made sure to take advantage.

The Lady Terrors went 7-for-10 from the line in the game’s final two minutes, including a 4-for-6 performance from Sheeler during that span, which kept Port A’s comeback attempt at bay.

O-E has now won four of its last five games.

“I think we’re getting some confidence, and that’s huge in basketball and in life,” Gray said.

The Lady Gators, which had a five-game win streak snapped with the loss, will look to rebound on Saturday in a non-league game at Ridgway. The Lady Terrors host NTL foe Cameron County Monday night.

AT PORT ALLEGANY

Otto-Eldred (59)

Katie Sheeler 3 8-10 15, Bri Heller 5 3-4 13, Kayley Heller 4 2-3 10, Cousins 2 0-2 5, Raught 3 2-2 9, Dalton 3 0-0 7. Totals: 20 15-21 59

Port Allegany (51)

Cailey Barnett 11 4-6 33, Bree Garzel 3 6-8 14, Stauffer 0 2-2 2, Daniels 1 0-0 2. Totals: 15 12-16 51

Otto-Eldred 14 24 41 59

Port Allegany 13 24 37 51

Three-point goals: O-E 4 (Sheeler 1, Cousins 1, Raught 1, Dalton 1), Port A 9 (Barnett 7, Garzel 2); Total fouls: O-E 17, Port A 18; fouled out: Bri Heller (O-E), Maleah Daniels (PA)

JV: Port A won, 34-30, OT